Some Nigerians in the Diaspora have said the reports that President Muhammadu Buhari is an impostor known as Jubrin from Sudan is “mischievous”.

In a statement on Sunday, the Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group (NDMG) said those behind the rumour need “psychiatric attention”.

A statement by Francis Adeka, on behalf of the group, read: “The claim is being bolstered with a poor rendition and understanding of scientific procedures like cloning, face transplant among others, which proves that those that are carrying this fake news need mental intervention.

“The fake claim would have been considered humorous, but for the fact that it has attained the first position of the most ridiculous and hare-brained in the annals of conspiracy theories. It is a story meant to prey on the gullible by reason of limited mental capacity, whose numbers seem to be increasing on daily basis. Sadly, those peddling the fake news about cloning have even lesser mental capacity than the people they are deceiving.

“The leading organisation on cloning was categorical in stating that gene cloning is the most common type of cloning done by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). NHGRI researchers have not cloned any mammals and NHGRI does not clone humans.”

The group further stated that proponents of the fallacy are using a “1997 Sci-Fi thriller, Face/Off, as prop in their illogical argument saying there has been a face swap between Buhari and Jubrin”.

“In the medical world, there has been a handful of partial and full face transplants, but the recipients of the face transplant look nothing like the donors; and of course the new faces come with some level of distortion with the risk of rejection for which the patients take a cocktail of mediation for life,” the statement read.

“Even more childish is the flipping and reversing of photographs of President Buhari to claim that one version is right-handed, while the other is left-handed, which is a photo trick that is achievable with the most basic photo editing software.”